Lusternia Year in Review for 2012

Estarra

The Year in Review is up!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Janalon

First and foremost, thank you for your keen reflection on 2012. I especially appreciate the brutal honesty regarding the static player base and how ikons were received. Despite those particular areas... WOW! A ton of fresh content was released, especially as it relates to new skill sets. This passage summed it up nicely:

While this year saw many events and a lot of roleplaying, we certainly did not skimp on releases! ... We started the year with the opening of two new guilds, the Symposium in Hallifax and the Minstrels in Gaudiguch. Weather was also completely revamped which made way for the release of the Shamanism skill option for druids. Next came the Cavalier specialization for warriors, which involved polearms, something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Let’s not forget we also had special reports for races, monks and demigod powers as well as server side curing, auto-firstaid and new achievements and guild covenants!

Two new bard guilds. YAY! Warriors get another specialization with Cavaliers. Mages will make out nicely with the upcoming elemental specs. Druids doubly so for their new nature specs AND the Shamanism tert. Did I miss any guardian / wiccan releases?

Anyway... I can't help but feeling that monks got the boot this year. Yeah, I know last year's tattoos were a very nice bonus, and preceeded much of this additional guild content. However, I can't but help to feel that this year's monk "Special Report" is synonymous with archetype-wide nerfs.

Sure, there's no doubt that the future will bring the advent of Gaudi / Halli monks. But, c'mon. At most new Kata specializations will be created to support this release. Following with the illithoid / kephera divide (as hinted in the collegium quests), Gaudi will get Stealth and Halli Harmony. I hope somewhere in there monks get some additional content as well...

Hrm, could the future will bring a new Psionic spec for monks like the one mentioned somewhere deep in the old forum and news posts? Time will tell.

Anyway, I don't mean to sound bitter. Thanks for a wonderful 2012 and I am looking forward to 2013, which will be the 5th RL calendar year for Janalon. Happy New Year everybody!

Xenthos

I still think that ikons can be more popular.  Cut their cost dramatically in the shop- they cost more than their curio counterparts, but provide less benefit.

The organization ones are also just a hassle to collect; doing an org quest should be a 100% guarantee, really (just like any other quest).

I love ikons, people just don't really want to play without having a decent gestalt to do it with (and I find myself guilty of that same thing).  Making a decent gestalt is more difficult than it really needs to be!

Portius

Xenthos said:

I still think that ikons can be more popular.  Cut their cost dramatically in the shop- they cost more than their curio counterparts, but provide less benefit.

The organization ones are also just a hassle to collect; doing an org quest should be a 100% guarantee, really (just like any other quest).

I love ikons, people just don't really want to play without having a decent gestalt to do it with (and I find myself guilty of that same thing).  Making a decent gestalt is more difficult than it really needs to be!

I strongly agree on dropping the price, and you should look into making org ikons easier to get (Hallifax ones strike me as being fairly easy. Maybe put all of them on that level, if the others are more difficult?)

Another point for making psychodrama easier to get into would be to make the upper gestalt skills lower in dramatics so getting to a full getalt isn't so expensive for those of us who haven't been able to trans any skills yet.

Ragniliff

My honest opinion is that ikons would have been wholly more popular if the packages at the artifact shop were released at a gold cost instead. It's a neat little game, but with all of the additional things released at the cost of credits recently, including the damage resistance and enhancement curios (which I also feel should have also been at a gold cost only, but that's another story), I think people quite frankly just want to reserve their credits for other things.

I, for my part, do not plan on buying the ikon packs because of the credit cost. I'll just earn them slowly and painfully through questing instead. I understand they probably took a lot of hours to prepare and such, but... there's only so many credits to go around. And if my hoarding credits off of the market for this is going to prevent other people from learning more skills or getting what they need for combat, then I'll just pass.

That aside, the Goloth storyline was quite nice, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Alacardael

I agree, the Goloth story was fantastic. The Aether Rings arc event is still my favorite, though!

Llandros

With your ideas, Iosai's blazing fast coding and the rest of the admin's help, the sky is the limit!

Thank you so much for all the hard work and we are all really excited to see what is coming in the next year.

You know, things like a new bard tertiary... 

[-O<

Shuyin

Good stuff, gg Lusternia.

Maybe guardians and wiccans can get some hookups this year.

I'm seconding the idea that ikons should cost gold instead of credits, considering they give way less benefit than a curio. 

This way, you really can mirror it like a TCG and allow people to collect/sell booster packs, starter decks, etc given how cheaper they'd be. Also allow people to sell them in shops.

Shaddus

I'd like to see a way to burn/consume cards to add something besides an influence boost. Perhaps trade a certain amount in for bound credits, or gold, or experience/essence.

Estarra

Hmm, I might consider experience/essence... would any really use them for that though?

Shuyin

Aren't those called curios already, though? 

I think ikons should just be made more available via gold (more gold sinks yay!), so people could trade them more. Then if you allow them to be sold in shops in both ikon and gestalt form, a market can be established.

Xenthos

For power leveling, maybe. Not really the solution I'd like to see; giving them more reason to be destroyed is going the wrong way, at least at this point. I would prefer to see tuem generated faster / their cost reduced so as to encourage more participation and interest.

Karlach

Estarra said:

Hmm, I might consider experience/essence... would any really use them for that though?

Anyone who has managed to amass a bunch while doing the grind of levelling/second tradeskill would love you.

Cyndarin

It was a good year! The Xynthin event was very well played out and I forever tip my hat to whatever admin ran it, namely the ones that created the visions and played the parts of Rowena and Brennan. It was excellent. The visions of alternate timelines were some of the coolest (and best written) parts of an event I've ever seen. Closest I've ever felt as a player and character to a truly apocalyptic event. The sheer volume of new stuff that was introduced was beyond impressive. So kudos again to the work of the admin for keeping a constant stream of new, well designed things for us.

Was vengeance released this year? I can't remember, but if it was...hands down one of the best additions I've seen for Lusternia.

 

My one real let down this year, and I admit it is a big one for me, is the the tidal wave of new stuff did not include guilds that needed it. I'm so glad druids got some attention as they really needed it. But I think the flurry of all the new skillsets, the guilds that really needed some attention have kind of been left to the wolves of the envoy process. I hope the mysterious envoy comment on the crone report heralds some new things in the future for Wiccans.

 

For me personally 2012 was very fun and eventful. Got Ascendant, found the SDs and have absolutely loved being one, got back into heavy RP that I haven't done since the days of Fain, and worked hard to get the SDs in a good place both through envoys and RP.

 

Also: I've been playing forever. Eesh, what is this...my 6th year? Holy Gaga.

Ragniliff

Ikons don't really need to have lots of different ways to provide alternate benefits. If they could be used for instant exp/essence, it should scale to the rarity of the ikon in the same way as the influence exp bonus and provide very little benefit for common/uncommon.

Ikons just need to be more available. People who didn't bother with dramatics before will already need to invest in that - make the ikons themselves just cost gold, please.

Also, regarding monks, I'm pretty sure they got the changes to kata forms this year, to allow multiple variations per momentum in one form. That was a pretty big deal!

Estarra

Celina said:

My one real let down this year, and I admit it is a big one for me, is the the tidal wave of new stuff did not include guilds that needed it. I'm so glad druids got some attention as they really needed it. But I think the flurry of all the new skillsets, the guilds that really needed some attention have kind of been left to the wolves of the envoy process. I hope the mysterious envoy comment on the crone report heralds some new things in the future for Wiccans.

I could tell you something but then I'd have to kill you! Suffice to say that not all things that were planned for release were able to be released.

Eventru

Estarra said:

Celina said:

My one real let down this year, and I admit it is a big one for me, is the the tidal wave of new stuff did not include guilds that needed it. I'm so glad druids got some attention as they really needed it. But I think the flurry of all the new skillsets, the guilds that really needed some attention have kind of been left to the wolves of the envoy process. I hope the mysterious envoy comment on the crone report heralds some new things in the future for Wiccans.

I could tell you something but then I'd have to kill you! Suffice to say that not all things that were planned for release were able to be released.


Really, just throwing this out there. It sounds like a win-win to me.

Cyndarin

If you are trolling me....you better be ready...

Viynain

I have to echo those who have talked about ikons prior to this posting - they don't need to be given more benefits to be more attractive for the general playerbase to get into. They just need to become more accessible. For awhile now, a lot of talk that has come and gone is about the concept of another gold sink, and ikons can fit into this if ikons were purchaseable with gold instead of credits. I mean, people will already need credits to access Dramatics and gestalts (which are a considerably lower priority than say, guild or survival skills), let alone more credits for the ikons as well.

Ikons can indeed be quested for, but I also agree - making the generation more friendly would help tremendously in encouraging people to dabble into Psychodrama (which I would seriously love since those messages when ikons are played are awesome). If not making organization quests guarantee an ikon, at least make the counter to the next ikon generation for the point-based quests be available. I know that I, personally, grind better if I can see how close I am to my goal rather than throwing points out into the void and hoping it's enough to get what I want.

I love the releases even though I broke with the near-simultaneous reveal of two different collectibles broke me for a few months, and I look forward to seeing what can be especially done for ikons as a whole.

P.S. My ikon catalogue is at 767 - am I even close to completing yet? >.>

Zvoltz

Viynain said:

P.S. My ikon catalogue is at 767 - am I even close to completing yet? >.>

No.

Viynain

Zvoltz said:

Viynain said:

P.S. My ikon catalogue is at 767 - am I even close to completing yet? >.>

No.

Where's my dislike button.

Zvoltz

http://www.lusternia.com/pop-culture-ikon

^ We've said how many ikons are currently available!

Llandros

Also, I was totally at the DC meet!

I thought we really bonded when I held your hair while you barfed on those strippers. 

(

Cyndarin

Over 1000? Oh god, Viynain isn't even close. POOR VIYPANTS. (poor clan I'm in that has to suffer through even more ikon ranting)

Viynain

Moar grinding!